Children living among the dead

Columban Sr Julietta Choi tells us about teaching poor children in a cemetery, a place for the dead, not for the living.

Children living among the dead

Before coming to the Philippines from Korea in 2012, I heard that some of our Columban Sisters had started a ministry for the children who live in a cemetery among the graves in Manila. How is that possible? I asked myself, aren't Cemeteries for the dead, not for the living.

This really distressed me, as before I joined the Columban Sisters, I had taught children in school and I could not imagine the little ones among the dead.

Then I went to visit and meet the people who have no place to live but in the cemetery where they eat and sleep on top of the tombs. Many earn their living by cleaning the tombs. The children were dirty, some with no clothes and most without shoes.

In my fear I thought, is it dangerous to stay here? Will I be safe with them? Will it be possible for me to love them? I was not comfortable holding the children’s dirty hands. No way could I hug them. I felt I could not stay with them even for one hour.

I felt I was not a missionary, I was a tourist. I just wanted to see the way the people lived in a cemetery - that was all. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. It was a dreadful moment.

When I left the cemetery, I realised my world had turned upside-down and inside-out. All the theology that I had studied did not fit at all with the reality that I had just experienced.

I was a tourist, curious and wanting to see how people outside my world lived, but I had no understanding of what it might mean to follow Jesus all the way. It was an hour of shocking self-revelation. I realized I hadn’t yet found the meaning of mission.

Next morning, Sr. Venus, with whom I live in community, took me to see the classroom in the cemetery. The classroom was a plain tomb in an open area with no roof on it, no chairs, no desks, no shelter.

After a while the children began to come and it was bedlam. The class started but some of the children were jumping and flying like Tarzan from tomb to tomb. I felt I would go out of my mind and to make matters worse, it started to rain. But that didn’t bother them at all. In fact, it was only the missionary Sister (me) who ran for shelter.

On my way home, I had some strange feelings and although I did not want to go back to this dreadful place, I knew I could not reject the children who showed such a hunger for learning. So I went back.

The first thing was to look for another meeting place and I found a lovely spot a little apart from the graves. Initially only five to ten children attended but as time went by the number increased to 45. Every time I go to the cemetery for my class, I bring a small white board, coloured pencils, a keyboard and some snacks. Sometimes I feel like a walking classroom.

I try to speak Tagalog, the national language, and somehow the children understand what I’m saying to them.

We correct and finish each other’s sentences both in Filipino and Korean and whenever I make a mistake, they burst out laughing while vigorously clapping their hands.   

I know that Jesus loves the cemetery children and I too have come to love them very much.
Children living among the dead
Sr Julietta Choi is a young Korean Columban Sister on her first missionary appointment in the Philippines.

Read more from The Far East, Jan/Feb 2014